The residents of Davis Square Condominiums welcome hundreds of visitors to their pond each week. The pond is a special community addition.
In addition to the many colorful koi, the pond contains oranda goldfish, golden orfes, Chinese High-Fin Banded Sharks, and lots of Rosy Red minnows. In the summer you can spot juvenile Eastern Painted Turtles basking on the rocks and log.
The space is open to visitors during the day 8am-8pm for the community to enjoy this wonderful space for quiet observation.
The pond is solely maintained by volunteers who live at the lofts and in the surrounding neighborhood. New volunteers are always welcome.
The volunteers participate in clean-up, simple maintenance, holiday decoration, and over-wintering activities.
For the irregular pond newsletter, please contact AndrewAtThePond@gmail.com
The pond is situated at the bottom of a moderately large water table, alongside a slow-moving, underground stream. Long ago the stream - Tannery Brook - was paved over. And it is this underground Tannery Brook that feeds the pond an endless supply of clean water.
Twenty-five goldfish were released into the pond in July, 2008. Their sole purpose was to eat thousands of mosquito larvae. At this time, a uniform expanse of grating covered the pond.
In 2009, an architect moved into one of the lofts. He is responsible for the basic layout of the pond. He established a higher water level so that fish could swim above the grating. And he sawed out a large opening in the middle pond gratings. He then placed two large grating sections on concrete blocks above the opening so that fish could freely swim above and below the grating.
That summer the first koi were added; Cloud and Vampire.
A few years later, a natural wastewater remediation engineer - who grew up in the neighborhood - suggested the addition of a green-wall. Volunteers and supplies were rounded up, and the green-wall (and watering system) was installed on a single weekend day.
And more recently, another architect and resident, became an active pond volunteer. His keen aesthetic sense is spread across the pond - from the rock formations to pond plantings to underwater lighting.